It's Nor-Con this coming weekend! I'm especially excited as I will be a cosplay guest at Reynard City this year! So please do come by for a chat!! I shall be debuting Wonder Vixen which I have made especially for RC and Norcon 2017!

Simple title, simple answer! I've let the blog get a fair bit behind - the cons and trips on top of work have built up to overwhelm me! But don't fret, I plan on overhauling the blog this year and to refresh my website etc etc!

In the meantime, feel free to get in touch and hopefully I shall get to see some of you at an upcoming con!

My one and only CMV! This video bundles together many years of my crazy cosplaying shenanigans at conventions along with my amazing friends, so it's a story book of memories! x The song is perfect for the video

The events footage was taken at: Kitacon, Manga Norfolk, Norwich Gaming Festival, MCM ComicCon, JapanEx, Yorkshire Cosplay Con, Hyper Japan, AniMedia East cosplay meets and can include photos from this list as well as Ayacon and Amecon.

Music used: Owl City 'When Can I See You Again?'

Photos are a combination of those taken on my own camera, thanks to my husband and friends and from various photographers such as: Paul Jacques, Emma Diamond, Mark Harper, Akraru.

Cosplay Tips! Wiggy wigs!
Make time to wig brush - sounds simple, but it really is essential to keep wigs lasting longer I make a habit of brushing my wigs after wearing them before they get put away - normally I do loads in one go - like tonight - I've brushed 7 wigs in total. As an example, you get one wig, matted one moment, smooth the next. Smooth brushing is needed here, and getting a good synthetic wig to start with always helps too! Make those wigs last longer and give them some TLC every now and again. Just be aware not all wigs with last the tests of time. It can be hit and miss.

The last AniMedia East meet of 2015 was a little turbulent! We lost one of our favourite venues for hosting indoor meets, The Griffin Pub in Norwich, but luckily we had the York Tavern offer us a space at the last minute!

The day was filled with people gaming, either handheld or using a console, Sak ran off some AMV’s for AMV:UK and brought lots of geeky goodies for people to buy including figurines (one of which now lives in my cabinet!) and we also had the attendees bring their items they wanted to sell and find a new home – oh and people brought cakes to sell for charity.

We had a successful Super Smash Bros Tournament with Flickie crowned champion and we finished the day off over burgers at the pub.

Safe to say, the struggles on finding a new venue may mean less AniMedia East meets in 2016, but I hope the next meet will be just has fun filled and will likely be around the summer time when things get warmer!

Our AniMedia East Cosplay picnic in Norwich for the summer was held at Waterloo Park and it was an eventful day! We took to the grounds to play volleyball and badminton and ended up spending most of our time chasing the volleyball out of the fountain!

This wasn’t the first time holding a picnic at this park, we have been there a few times before due to he beautiful surroundings and the local amenities like a chip shop / corner shop and resident ice cream van!

We held a little quiz in the afternoon and shared around snacks and cakes that we baked for charity! All in all it was a very peaceful and fun filled day, roll on the next one!

Kitacon 2015 was the first full 3 day con that I had the fortune to drag my husband to, hehe! He loved it The parties at Kitacon are always my favourite part, and this year didn’t fair disappoint. The first day of Kitacon was a day after my 30th birthday and as usual the con was held at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole near the NEC. We stayed on site and luckily had a relatively peaceful and comfortable room (considering the number of people around!) we also had a delicious unlimited breakfast each day – yum!

My favourite parts on the con (apart from the parties) were the Tofu Cute panel, AMV panel, Pink Turtle Panel (you’ll understand if you were there!) and of course watching the Kita’s Got Talent Show and the Masquerade.

I debuted my Romani / Malon – The Legend of Zelda cosplay at this event, because of the surroundings! Around the hotel are some woodlands and also a lake, this means it’s the perfect setting for photoshoots!

The three-day event went so fast, but there was always something to do and the street food and the milkshakes were a perfect topping to an already fun-packed event. Thanks to the organisers for always holding such a fantastic convention, and roll on next year!

The London Film and Comic Con in July 2015 was my first ever attendance at an LFCC event! I really enjoyed myself and getting to the Olympia was relatively easy by car too with parking right on site. The ticket prices are really good for the amount of stalls at the venue as well, £15 per person is a good price to gain access to LFCC.

I decided to wear my Totoro girl cosplay that day, because it’s an easy to put on, easy to wander around in – and its related to the film industry – win win! The event itself was split across different floors, so memorabilia and stalls were vast and it meant there was plenty of space for the star signings! I did lose my other half at one point as we hadn’t realised there was a one-way stair system! Oh no!

LFCC celebrated the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future and that meant massive stars were in attendance (Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson). Due to the ticket prices, I decided to save my cash and not meet the main stars this time around and instead I made a donation towards the Michael J. Fox Foundation charity – Via Team Fox – they gave me a lovely badge in return!!

I would honestly recommend LFCC to anyone look for nostalgic or retro goods, there was so much movie memorabilia too! I treated myself to something rather random… The Muppets puppets! I got Gonzo, Chef and Fuzzy Bear (to cunningly use for Kitacon’s lip sync battle hehehe). So if you want to try out LFCC, buy your tickets early, pre-book a parking space and bring cash to buy goodies!

The London Back to the Future concert was an impressive afternoon at the Royal Albert Hall. The first BTTF film was shown, accompanied by a live orchestra! I have to say it’s definitely the most extravagant way to watch one of my favourite films of all time. I’ve made previous visits to the Royal Albert Hall, namely the Distant Worlds concerts where I can safely say that the acoustics and atmosphere really make a visit there super special.

In addition to the showing of the film and the top notch orchestra, in the foyer there was a glass cabinet full of BTTF memorabilia, including Marty’s hover board, photos, programmes and other pieces. This was on display by Team Fox – the team created to promote the Michael J. Fox Foundation charity. This is a charity to raise funds to fuel more research into Parkinson’s, a worthy cause.

Later this month I will be attending the London Film and Comic Con, where Michael J. Fox himself will be present, along with Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson (plus even more stars)! It’s unlikely I will meet them personally but I will definitely be making an effort to find Team Fox again and put some money their way.

The Royal Albert Hall is likely to line up similar live music nights in the future, so keep an eye out on their website here http://www.royalalberthall.com

I’m now in my sixth year of organising meets for AniMedia East, how time flies! This latest meet was held at Chapelfield Gardens in Norwich, not only did we have a fun picnic but we also visited some local stores (such as Komikku and GAME at Chapelfield Mall) and on top of that we had a group photo shoot and an afternoon quiz! The only downside to the day was the weather, it was a rainy day but this didn’t stop us from having a fun time together! We welcomed the Norfolk Fur’s to our meet and was really happy they stayed as long as they did (the weather was very unforgiving for their fluffy tails!).

We really enjoyed visiting the local stores, especially Komikku. It’s really important that I can show how much Norwich has to offer for anime fans and Komikku is a must-see store with a wealth of merchandise for lots of tastes. They even hold card tournaments and also advertise local meets.

The afternoon quiz we held was run by my current group co-runner Mark, he did a great job compiling some tricky questions but also threw in a few easy ones. He even got some Pocky for the winners! Well done to all the teams and thank you for a great turnout (I believe we had approx 30 people for this latest quiz!).

Sadly, the day couldn’t last forever and before we knew it the meet was over, but that didn’t stop me dragging a few people to Wagamama’s nearby – that pork ramen bowl was so good. I hope I can find somewhere that will offer an ultimate meat bowl challenge someday, like they have in Persona 4… That would be amazing! Especially on a rainy day!

The next AniMedia East meet is scheduled for late August, but I’ll put more information out on social media when it’s ready to be announced!

The Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular was in Birmingham on the 26th May. This was the first Doctor Who event I have attended in its own right and was a special Christmas 2014 treat from Matt! The concert itself was held in the Barclaycard Arena and we were seated in the centre floor area – and I am lucky we were!

Throughout the concert there were monsters from Dr Who appearing not only on stage, but they also walked right past me (I was sitting on an aisle seat!). The orchestra were immense and Peter Davison (who played the fifth doctor) was a fantastic host and really funny!

There was merchandise on sale too so I bought myself a special Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular lanyard (like a con badge) and a Tardis conductor baton! There were plenty of other items on sale, including t-shirts.

The venue was really good for the concert, it was ideal for the music to bounce around and outside the main hall there were plenty of hot food stalls and drinks and plenty of space to stretch your legs in the interval. Be aware that food and drink are not cheap here, but if you need a hot meal there are options, just don’t expect much change!

My favourite parts of the concert had to be the music and video from ‘The Pandorica Opens’ and the main Dr Who theme tune at the end – it really was special to re-live some of the episodes in that environment.

I would highly recommend this concert to any Doctor Who fan because the music and the video were… well… spectacular!

May MCM Comic Con is always a treat, with so many people attending each year there is tonnes to see and plenty of dealers to visit! This year was a very casual attendance, driving down on the Sunday with Matt and Mark was a fun road trip and by arriving early we easily parked at the Excel Docklands car park and made our way straight into the event!

The queuing system has much improved, it works a lot better for the mass of people that Comic Con brings – my top tip here is to make sure which queue you should be in! Never assume and always ask one of the crew. When you get to the wrist band section be sure to be ready with your ticket and have your wrist ready for the band, it’s so easy to hold up the queue if you are not ready for them!

Once inside, the first place we visited was the Star Signing area, we were looking for John Noble as we are all big fringe fans (Fringe!), but this part of the day was the frustrating part. Instead of a queuing system for each star, you must all enter the same queue. Once at the end of this queue you buy a ticket to see your ‘star’ and then you have to get into their individual queue. Now, this was not too bad for first thing in the morning at the event, but you could easily see how this would be a big problem later on. On top of this, the independent queues for the stars are timed, this means you need to work out if there is enough time for you to get to the front of the queue before the slot is over! Otherwise you’ll have to come back later…

Anyhoo, it was okay for us all because the queue for John was relatively limited, and he was a lovely guy so it was all worthwhile! I asked him how he coped with the transition between Walter and Walternate in Fringe and was really intrigued by his reply, he really is a fascinating actor. Secondly, I asked him if he ever have problems with the cow, to which he replied “I love that cow!” Classic! (I love that cow too!).

The remainder of the event was a relaxed wondering; I twirled a bit around in my Tardis Girl cosplay, got to play on Tales of Zesteria (which was so beautiful!), watch people play Splatoon and got the usual staple – Pocky! I also got the usual fluttering when seeing the BTTF car in all its glory and later the new age bat car (which was very crowded!). I also got to put random husky dog ears on Matt’s head! Hehehehe!

Dealers wise I visited my favourite stall, Genki Gear, and couldn’t resist a new badge and tank top – they are celebrating 10 years! Can you believe it!! We also made sure to go round every single table, including the comic village, where I finally managed to get the Vampire Free Style collection! (wanted that for years and years!).

After the event we headed to our usual Fox Bar, had a cheeky cider or two (I tried the new black fruits strongbow – very nice!), and some club sandwiches!

So, if you are thinking of booking a trip to MCM Comic Con in London here are my tips: Book early, consider a one-day visit, save up lots of money!

Our AniMedia East Cosplay Easter event was held at The Griffin Pub in Norwich on Saturday 18th April and we raised money for two charities including Air Ambulance and E.A.C.H – totalling £116.01. I decided to dress up as Super Sonico for this meet, with a light blue 1950’s style cocktail dress and denim jacket!

Throughout the day we had a gaming area with a Wii U set up with Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8, as well as the option of Just Dance. In addition we had the awesome AMV:UK running anime music videos for us (thanks to Sak!) and I baked some cupcakes for charity (om nom nom carrot cake catnip).

This meet was also special as we set up some tables for merchants, who sold anime goods, cute trinkets and art! Links to those businesses can be found on our website links page. Big thanks to Emily, Brittany and Sophie and Lizzy for bringing along their goodies.

Not only this, but we had a fun Easter Egg Hunt, which I drew up scattered around the pub with riddle clues I made up, with the ultimate find a big easter egg supplied by AMV:UK – runners up got mini eggs which me and fellow AE host Mark contributed to as well.

Later in the afternoon we held our second AniMedia East Quiz, run by quizmaster Mark while I helped and our winners won even more chocolate! This was followed by our group photo which can be found on our website!

Lastly, nearing the end of the day we had the mini Charity Auction with the proceeds split 50/50 between Air Ambulance and E.A.C.H, followed by some quick pub grub before heading home. More information on our upcoming meets and photos can be found on our website http://www.AniMediaEast.webs.com where you can find and join our groups on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, so please keep supporting us with your attendance!

Our next meet is a Cosplay Picnic to be held on Saturday 13th June at Chapelfield Gardens in Norwich from 11am.

The Norwich Gaming Festival came back in April between the 6th and the 12th and it was a massive success! This year I actually got the opportunity to be part of the event on Saturday 11th April, by being asked to run a Cosplay Masquerade and have a talk in the main auditorium of The Forum in Norwich – wow! My talk was ‘All About Cosplay’ and was a basic run through on how you get an idea for a costume and how you can make that into a real life outfit, I went through some of the gaming characters that I have cosplayed and also went through a basic construction process. It was well-received so I was really ecstatic to have been given the chance to explain cosplay to people who were new to it, and to those who were interested but needed a little more insight. This was the second time I have held a presentation on cosplay and would definitely be up for doing it again!

Once my talk was over it was time for me to start the Norwich Gaming Festival Cosplay Masquerade! We had some fantastic entries getting on stage to some game music, and we had characters from games of old and new covered by our cosplayers such as: Silent Hill, Minecraft, League of Legends, Nights, Spyro, and Marvel characters. Our winner was a sweet little buy who cosplayed from Minecraft, who won a bar of chocolate! After the masquerade I announced a big photo shoot so I have some really cool photos of me in my Final Fantasy X Yuna cosplay with all the entrants.

Yorkshire Cosplay Con 7 (The Magnaificent 7 Convention) was the first YCC event I have attended, held at the Magna centre in Yorkshire (Rotherham), it was a mixture of avid cosplayers, comic book lovers, sci-fi fans, gamers and attracted many other people who had similar interests.

The venue layout was pretty simple, we arrived early on with easy parking and after you walk into the centre there is a big hallway with toilets (big enough for changing in) and seating, so its purely used for food so similar to a canteen area, it was also used as the main area for queuing. Once inside we were confronted with loads of lego displays, which meant I took many photos and marvelled at the patience to create those scenes, like Ghostbusters! Near this starting area was also a small gaming section, split into separate rooms and also places for art and trinkets. Further into the venue and around some corridors, also with toilets, we found the main hall which was the heart of the event.

The trades people were some of the friendliest I have come across which gave it a really nice feel – straight away I made my main purchase of the Legend of Zelda Manga set which I got from the Sheffield Space Centre stall – they were lovely guys! Apart from the main stage area where taiko drummers appeared, there were a few good photo opportunities too, such as a Tardis, Dalek and a Simpsons sofa!

We didn’t use the food area within the main hall where the stalls were and instead used the canteen area. The food and drink was reasonably priced (there was also cider!) and it was nice to watch passers by and all the brilliant cosplayers! My top tip for this event is to book early and arrive early!

The queue appeared to be the main issue with people and as it’s a small venue with limited staff, you can imagine waiting a long time to get in if you don’t arrive early enough. I would also recommend cosplayers to consider the size of the venue when choosing an outfit as it was at times hard to move about between people and the stalls.

In short, it was a good event to visit, although we got round it very quickly by getting there early, but that just meant getting home at a reasonable time too! Win win! http://www.yorkshirecosplaycon.co.uk

My first ever MCM Comic Con away from London happened this year! Me, my husband and my good bud Mark all drove up to Birmingham to check out the event on Saturday 21st March and we were so glad we did!

The event was very well planned, we got in easily after buying later entry tickets to save a few pounds but we got into the hall really quickly. The venue was the NEC in Birmingham, my first ever visit! The parking was so simple, you just have to pay a one-off fee in cash for the whole day, there is a free bus that drives round the complex and takes you straight to the front door (perfect for anyone with stuff to carry!).

A word of warning if you are a cosplayer though, be prepared to change in a small toilet like I did, or find the cosplay area in the main hall (which I found later!). I decided to cosplay as Yuna from Final Fantasy X and whilst getting into costume was like trying to complete a complex challenge in the crystal maze, the effort was worth it to be recognised and build up many chats with different cosplayers and fans alike. Shout out to the Doctor (tenth) who asked how my pilgrimage was going, to the awesome Auron who I had photos with, and all the lovely fans and dealers who wanted a chat and to hold my home-made staff! Also the guys at CEX for being so friendly, taking my photo with their octopus/squid thingy and also trying to help me find the bell that flew off my staff! The MCM staff overall were very helpful and friendly too, they even tried to duck out of people photos, bless them! Joe Black did a spectacular job as always on the main stage (which was inflatable!) and the masquerade cosplayers seem to be getting more and more talented with every event I go to, which is great to see!

Food and drink at the NEC appeared to be a challenge at first due to the numbers of attendees, but luckily my husband fought his way through the weatherspoons to nab a table which meant we had tasty panini’s for lunch and a much needed drink after the event! During lunch we watched the long walk of cosplayers, predominately star wars ones, so we got film and photos without moving from our seats! Maybe one of those storm troopers was Tom Felton in disguise doing his show about fans? His one-off show “Tom Felton Meets The Superfans” (BBC Three) is definitely worth a watch and it name dropped MCM Comic Con!

Lastly, to end a brilliant event, we all decided to visit a pub a short drive away which makes its own beer (I don’t drink beer myself but the lads loved it) and the cider suited me just fine!

21st February was the much anticipated Cosplay Ball that I ran with my fellow bud Mark Harper at AniMedia East along with other much needed volunteers. I made some pretty paper orb decorations and put up some purple drapes to give us a little ball feel, which was greatly appreciated! The meet was held at a venue we had been to before, The Griffin Pub in Norwich and it was such as fantastic day, we raised almost £200 in aid of charities, here is my round-up.

The meet ran from 12 mid day and we have AMV:UK (Sak) showcasing some fantastic AMV’s on two screens in the dance floor area.

Myself and a few others baked some delicious cupcakes which were on sale for the charity E.A.C.H (East Anglia Children’s Hospice) – in addition we collected a few pounds from people who wanted to participate in the Cosplay Ball that evening – in total we managed to raise £39.21 for E.A.C.H – thank you everyone!

We had a Super Smash Bro’s knock-out tournament with Joshua (Flickie) winning an item of his choosing from the charity auction goodies – big thanks to Daniel Heath who ran the gaming section!

In the afternoon, Quiz Master Mark Harper ran the first official AniMedia East Quiz – trophies were handed out to the three teams that did the best and the winners won some candy too! There was also a consolation prize for last place.

Later in the day we popped out of the venue to get some photos with Mark our official photographer – some brilliant shots were taken and shared – if anyone wants to buy prints, do shout! I adored the Totoro Girl ones that Mark took of me, very appropriate in a random field and the sunset was stunning.

Lastly we had the hugely successful Charity Auction in aid of Air Ambulance, we had some great fun bidding on items that people had kindly donated, myself included! It was a strange feeling seeing people outbid each other from my old PS1 DBZ and Kotobuki games! We raised a total of £150.76 in aid of Air Ambulance.

The end of the daytime event meant the start of the Cosplay Ball – we had some brilliant music and videos from AMV:UK – All thanks to Sak! We then ended the evening by crowning the King and Queen of the Cosplay Ball (Jason and Alex) and I created some handmade medals for them to wear as proof.

All in all it was a great day but we really hope even more people will stay for the ball next time! The next AniMedia East meet is scheduled for 18th April 2015.

27th February marked the Vampires Rock show, it was just as fantastic as a year ago!

After hearing that Steve Steinman was considering it to be the last run of this type of show it was decided to visit it before it got the stake! The venue that held the show was the Newark Palace Theatre and it would be a crime if we didn’t visit the nearby pub! The show was loud and proud and the cast were fantastic, a few changes to last years show, but well received changes including new songs sung and some extra cast! If you like rock, vampires and a bit of fun, you’ll love this show.

At the end of the show, when we thought it was all over, they announced a new chapter of Vampires Rock – Ghost Train. So now even more people have a chance of seeing this loud and proud show!

One of my favourite bits has to the solo of the front left guitarist, I do love a guitar!

Please come along if you can! I will be running a talk at 3pm on cosplay and I am also running the masquerade!! If you would like to enter, please tweet me your details or contact me through my 'contact me' page as soon as possible!

Super slacked on my blog (oops) so a little post from me below for now! (I will fill in the gaps at some point!!)

So for my 2014 round-up I shall try to keep it short and sweet. Hand on heart I’m in a much happier place than twelve months ago, this year hasn’t been easy but every cloud has a silver lining! In the run up to getting our new home its probably the most stressed and upset I’ve been for half a decade, and while things were difficult I had some really special family and friends to keep me smiling, so thank you all (insert gushiness here), you helped me realise what is really important. I’m also really thankful I got to a few more events this year and saw more cosplay peeps than usual, big thanks to photographers as well, you all gave me some great memories of my cosplays to keep forever! Resolution wise I managed to complete my ‘finish three games’ goal, never thought that would happen!

So, my hopes for 2015 are as follows: Get fita for kita and generally sort myself out in terms of fitness, get to some new cons and see my friends more, go on more crazy adventures with my husband, take my mum out more, try to make my next cosplays more fun to do vs stress inducing, keep up my blog/page and stuff and start noting stuff down!… Oh and 2015 is the year I turn 30, on the 30th July, so I am going to party hard and make it a good one! (Insert Kitacon, ^^ – drinks welcomed hehe)